Polenta: why do we like it so much in Venice? The first memory of the taste of polenta in my mouth goes back to the age 3 or 4. I was sitting on the back of my mum “sit-up-&-beg” bike (this is the nice term my English husband calls the Graziella bikes, which used to [...]

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My Top 10 Free things to do in Venice Unlike many other cities around the world which offer the tourists many free museums and exhibitions to visit, Venice unfortunately does not do that. It is a city which lives off tourism, therefore every possible site is exploited one way or another, by charging the tourist [...]

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There are two words in the Italian language that have always bugged me. One I wish I could delete completely from the Italian dictionary, the second I really wish it was implemented by every Italian. The first word is MENEFREGHISMO and the second is AUTO-IRONIA. Before I start I would like to point out that [...]

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XII Culture week in Italy (16th-25th April) The MiBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali) will offer free entry for ten days, starting 16th April, to all state owned art buildings in Italy; monuments, museums, archaeological areas, archives, libraries and much more. This is called the Culture Week (Settimana della Cultura) The city [...]

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25th April 2010 in Venice – Saint Mark’s and Blooming Rose day (Festa di San Marco e del Boccolo) For all Venetians 25th April is a celebration much older than the Italian National holiday which is celebrated on the same day. The 25th April is, as well as being National Liberation Day, the day of [...]

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Treviso, water & history not far from Venice, Italy « Dove Sile e Cagnan s’accompagna » (Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia (Paradiso, IX, v.49)) [Where the River Sile and the River Cagnan meet – by Dante Alighieri, Divine Commedy (Paradiso, IX, v.49) ] Last Sunday I decided to take some friends of ours, who were here for [...]

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A peaceful Oasis amidst the hordes of tourists in Venice! All I can hear when people talk about Venice is that the town is overcrowded, there are tourists everywhere, it is impossible to enjoy the city. Well, this is absolutely true if, like what 95% of people do when visiting Venice, you only stick to [...]

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First meet-up for Ex-pats in Venice:what a lovely evening! Since we have returned to live in Italy back in 2000, my British husband and I have been trying to get in contact with English speaking people living in Venice for a long time. Veneto is not Tuscany, we don’t have all the lovely rolling hills [...]

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Just a quick post with some beautiful pictures of Vlla Pisani In Strà, on the Riviera del Brenta near Venice. The author is a local photographer Franco Amormino, you can see all of his collection on fliker Be Sociable, Share! Tweet

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It’s March 10th and it fells like Christmas Day in Siberia! These are a couple of videos I took of the situation outside the house at 8.30 am, you can hear the wind howling, well it is worse than it looks! Venice’s countryside in the snow storm on March 10th 2010 Countryside in Oriago, near [...]

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10 Old Venetian Proverbs about Food, Drink and Family Yesterday at the library in Oriago, my home town, I came across a very interesting book about old Venetian proverbs, many of which I remember from when I was young and many I did not know. The book is called Proverbi Veneti Commentati by Mario Massari [...]

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Astronomy and Mineral Exhibition in Villa Farsetti, Near Venice Yesterday, 7th March 2010, here on the Riviera del Brenta was a beautiful sunny and windy day, preparing us for maybe what will be a nice Springtime (we hope). We decided to head for the day to Villa Farsetti in Santa Maria di Sala, a small [...]

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VILLA E BARCHESSA WIDMANN IN MIRA, JUST OUTSIDE VENICE I find myself always talking about Venice, but today I decided it was time to talk about the Terraferma (the inland) and about what it can offer to Venice’s visitors. During the Middle Ages Venice looked at the water and the sea as a mean to [...]

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7th March: Women’s day – Free entry in all State owned Museums in Venice On 7th March 2010, the Italian Ministry of Beni e Attività Culturali has decided to celebrate International Women’s day by offering all women a free entry to all State owned Museums and Art Galleries in Italy. On this occasion on 7th [...]

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Facts, figures and bizarre things about the beautiful city of Venice OK, so here you are: getting ready to come to visit Venice, the Serene city of Europe, the great Dame of the Water! You have booked your holiday, your luggage is ready, your passport is up to date, you have got your map and [...]

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As probably many of you know, there are more than 430 bridges in Venice. I am going to try to list some of the most famous and explain to you why they have been named that way. Originally all bridges were made of wood or stone and they did not have any side protection, which [...]

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Venetian Ghosts: all revealed in a great book by Venetian writer Alberto Toso Fei. When I first bought the book Venetian Legends and Ghost Stories by Alberto Toso Fei (to help me prepare my Food and Ghost tour of Venice) I thought it would be the usual invented and over-tragic list of ghost and horror [...]

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Ah, here it is again, like every winter, the eternal question: shall I dress up or not for the Venice Carnival? Today a collegue and twitter friend @casinadirosa  ( www.casinadirosa.it ) asked me if I had anything written down on the Venice Carnival.  As I said no, that  I didn’t and that I had to [...]

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Always wanted to learn Italian, but don’t have the time? Always wanted to visit Venice and live like an Italian for a while? Well this is the course for you. You can take part in a short week-end language course in the outskirts of Venice, on the Riviera del Brenta in my own house. You [...]

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Yes, I admit it: I am Venetian and I never been on a rowing boat in my whole life! First of all I would like to clarify something: the term Venetian does not apply only to people who are born and live in Venice itself, but also to all of those people who live in [...]

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